Egypt will take at least another week to decide whether its armed forces may help shield Saudi Arabia from the Houthis. On Monday the House of Representatives broke off its second closed session on the request and moved the vote to 26 October, after an earlier delay from Sunday to Tuesday.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wants a mandate to answer a Saudi call for help, should one come; no formal request from Riyadh has been made public. He insists the mission would be purely protective. “We’re talking only about defence,” he said on Saturday, a message widely read as pointing to air and missile defence rather than troops in Yemen. A day later the National Defence Council, which he chairs, signed off on the plan. Under Egypt’s constitution, though, any deployment of troops into combat outside the country requires 398 votes, a two-thirds share of the house.
On paper that hurdle looks easy, because parties loyal to the government control 403 of the elected seats. Yet roughly 300 deputies asked to speak, and the Social Democrats, a small opposition group, instructed their lawmakers to abstain, complaining that nobody had explained the mission’s goals, length, price or risks. From al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s most prestigious seat of learning, came a plea for Arab and Muslim mediation to avoid more killing.
Cairo’s finances weigh on the decision too. Riyadh has parked more than $10bn with the Egyptian central bank, and a $5.3bn tranche matures this month, and many Egyptians send home wages earned in the Saudi energy sector. On top of that, since 2023 the rebels’ attacks on shipping near Bab al-Mandeb have drained roughly $11bn from Suez Canal earnings.
For the kingdom, the danger keeps growing. The rebels have hit Riyadh’s main airport, where Saudi officials say 13 people died on 10 October, as well as Aramco sites. Turkey and Pakistan have already promised support under a defence pact agreed with the kingdom in August.
